Building a New House for the Buddha: Buddhist Social Engagement and Revival in Vietnam, 1927 - 1951

Abstract

This study investigates social engagement of Vietnamese Buddhists from the 1920’s to the 1950’s. It argues that the social engagement was a product of the Vietnamese Buddhist revival – which emerged in the 1920s. During the revival, Vietnamese Buddhists attempted to remake their religion into a this-worldly Buddhism. They established Buddhist associations, periodicals and monastic schools to propagate the Dharma. Their goal was to use Buddhism to effectively deal with the colonization of the country by the French and the challenges posed by colonial modernity.